Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Reaches New 52-Week Low Following Analyst Downgrade

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Friday after Wall Street Zen downgraded the stock from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating. The company traded as low as $32.15 and last traded at $31.76, with a volume of 3466 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $34.18.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on YELP. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Yelp from $35.00 to $30.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Yelp from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on Yelp from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yelp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.00.

Insider Activity at Yelp

In other news, CTO Sam Eaton sold 12,904 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.18, for a total transaction of $492,674.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 145,064 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,538,543.52. This represents a 8.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Craig Saldanha sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.23, for a total value of $35,230.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 212,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,494,125.60. This trade represents a 0.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 58,345 shares of company stock worth $2,151,656. 8.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Yelp in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Yelp by 307.4% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,096 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 827 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new stake in Yelp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $52,000. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Yelp in the 1st quarter valued at $56,000. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yelp during the 4th quarter valued at $63,000. 90.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yelp Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.00, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $34.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.09.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The local business review company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $370.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $365.71 million. Yelp had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 10.28%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.54 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yelp Company Profile

Yelp Inc operates a platform that connects consumers with local businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's platform covers various categories, including restaurants, shopping, beauty and fitness, health, and other categories, as well as home, local, auto, professional, pets, events, real estate, and financial services.